Clinical Exchange in Japan

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Nagoya University School of Medicine International Exchange

Mr. Jeff Karns from U.S.A.

Departments: Pediatrics and Internal Medicine
Period: February 2014

I am very impressed with what I was able to see in such a short time. I am in much gratitude to everyone who helped arrange for my stay and made my experience possible. I cannot thank everyone enough at how generous and hospitable they were to me which made my experience very enjoyable.

I was very happy to get to visit the outpatient clinics in Nakatsugawa and Kachigawa. It was a good experience to see rural medicine, the elderly population and as well the pediatric population. This was especially enjoyable for me since I myself will be going into Family Medicine. While realizing there are subtle differences between clinics in America and Japan, there are by far much more similarities. Being able to observe patient history and physicals let me experience true doctor patient relationships in a foreign country. I hope to use these experiences in America, especially when I am involved in taking care of patients who are not native to America.

Being able to see the inpatient service was also very helpful. For example I saw a patient with Behcets disease, something I had only read about in a book before. The attending doctors were all very knowledgeable and very eager to explain to me about the medical treatment and disease management. Attending morning and evening conferences also let me have a wide exposure to a lot of different types of cases. I was also able to see the mental health center and be involved in two patients with eating disorders. I spent a considerable amount of time with a patient with sever weight loss and talked to her about her experience and feelings toward her condition. These patient encounters are something that I will forever hold onto as a future doctor and will help me take care of future patients. I was impressed at the wide variety of cases in Nagoya University Hospital.

Being able to see the outpatient side of the hospital was also a unique experience. In America the outpatient and inpatient settings are usually not in the same building. I thought this aspect of the hospital was interesting because it allows for smoother admissions if a patient needs to go from the outpatient to inpatient side.

My experiences with the residents and medical students were a wonderful learning experience both in medicine and in the Japanese language. Everyone was very nice at explaining things to me in easy to understand Japanese which really helped with my studies of the language. With the 5 year medical students I was able to partake in simulation patient cases. I had the opportunity to interview a patient in both Japanese and English. Additionally the lectures were very helpful. I particularly enjoyed the Oriental Medicine lecture, something that I had had little exposure to in America. Chinese medicines, Kanpo as well as the Acupuncture techniques are both new and very interesting. I hope to one day incorporate Eastern alternative medicine to my patient practice and become more knowledgeable in the subject.

Overall I am more than satisfied with my two weeks in general medicine. My only complaint is that I didn`t have more time! I hope to use these experiences both back at home to America, as well as for residency return to do another study abroad.

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